Spain, Slovenia, and Ireland were left alone yesterday in their intention for the EU to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel. The other 24 countries did not see the demand as clear, especially Germany and Italy, which considered it inappropriate. Surely the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, was right when she downplayed this association pact and wondered if its suspension would have curbed Israeli expansion in the West Bank. But politics also advances through gestures. That is why the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, also had a point when he left this conclusive phrase: “I ask for one measure. Just one. Since Israel launched this permanent war against all its neighbors in the Middle East, there has not been a single response from the EU.”
Last week, the United States Senate voted on a resolution by Senator Bernie Sanders that sought to block the sale of military equipment to Israel. It was rejected, but 40 of the 47 Democratic senators voted in favor of the initiative to stop the sale of American weapons to Israel. It was a very unusual result, given the historical support that the Democratic Party has always given to the Jewish lobby. It was a gesture.
And it is that, according to a recent Gallup institute survey, the sympathies of the American people are changing. If ten years ago 62% of citizens supported Israel and 15% supported Palestine, today support for the Jewish cause has fallen to 36%, while that shown towards Palestinians has grown to 41%.
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The same is happening in Europe. And the EU should not be insensitive to it, nor stand aside. Historically, due to social and religious issues, Europeans are more aligned with Israel than with Arab countries, and criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu does not mean a disqualification of the Jewish people. But what has happened in Gaza and the West Bank or the bombings in Lebanon cannot be accepted as a logic of total war.
Israel weakens its image in the world and the European Union, by rebound, is also affected if it does not know how to put itself in its place. Even if it is through some political gesture.
